


Seven years of magic school

by Sparky525



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, And the Broadway people were there as students, F/F, I had all these ideas that seemed to work together so I really wanted to try it, What if Emma was in Gryffindor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-06-22 08:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19663909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparky525/pseuds/Sparky525
Summary: The story of the seven years Emma and Alyssa went to Hogwarts. The other characters are here too. Yeah, that's about it.





	1. Year One: Purple Cats, Chocolate Frogs, and Singing Puppets

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So I've never written anything like this before but I love this show and I love these characters. Also I wanted to see if I could pull off writing about Hogwarts, I don't know if this is any good but I know it was a ton of fun to write and I really want to keep writing about Emma and Alyssa growing up and if you have anything here you particularly like/dislike/want to see I'd love to hear about it!  
> Note: I didn't finish writing this until The Badger and the Eagle had already been published but it took me a long time to write this so I really wanted to post it. That said go read The Badger and the Eagle (or anything else by thatonegayone, I love their work and their characterization of Alyssa is much better than mine)!

Emma had read somewhere that the people she met on her first day at Hogwarts would become the most important people in her life. If that was true, she was in for a rough seven years.

First, there had been the getting to the train station. Emma hadn't spent much time in the Muggle world since moving in with her grandmother two years ago, who preferred to leave her little neck of the woods as rarely as possible. So they had gotten hopelessly lost at the station, even though they'd given themselves four extra hours to find the platform (with Betsy grumbling the whole time about how much the station had changed since she was a student). And then they'd made one wrong turn, so two of those hours had been taken up in the security office with some Muggle officer demanding to know why they had been looking for a platform in a broom closet. By the time they finally reached Platform Nine, Emma was so exhausted by the ordeal that she wasn't looking where she was going, and as she ran through the gate she accidentally hit a girl with her trolley. Emma just thanked her lucky stars that the girl appeared to be her age - being hexed before she even reached school would be one more thing that she didn't need, and judging by the glare this girl gave her she definitely would have if she could. As it was, her hitting the girl and the ensuing crash of all of her luggage and cauldron and books made such a commotion that it seemed to have scared away everyone who could possibly have wanted to join her on the train. As they pulled out of Platform Nine and Three Quarters, Emma was alone in her compartment. Well, except for her cat, Moby, who - where was he?

"Darn it," Emma muttered to herself. She should have known - Moby hated staying in one place for too long. She saw the curtain that separated her compartment from the aisle of the car swinging - maybe he had just let himself out? Maybe he wouldn't be too hard to find? Emma stood up and opened the curtain, looking up and down the aisle. Nothing. That was a start - Moby was a lot of things, but subtle wasn't one of them. He wasn't going to hide from her; he was just lost somewhere. So she started checking each compartment.

She opened the first curtain, where a group of older boys in green robes stared at her. Slytherin, she remembered her grandmother saying about the green and silver accents. Not a bad bunch, not entirely, but in general not her cup of tea. She tried to open her mouth to ask if they'd seen a cat come through, but she ended up just opening and closing her mouth and leaving.

Next - a group of girls maybe two years older than her, still in street clothes and talking loudly about some sports tournament one of the girls had been to that summer. When Emma asked if they'd seen Moby, they laughed and said no.

Next - a boy in blue robes making out with a girl in yellow. They stared at each other for just a moment too long before Emma blushed and ran away. "Close the curtain!" the boy shouted after her. Emma ran back, eyes down as she shoved the curtain as far closed as it could go.

Beginning to lose hope, Emma opened the next curtain. A short girl with long brown braids sat alone, looking out the window as the view became a little more wild. A large owl in a cage sat next to her. "Um - excuse me?" Emma asked. The girl turned around. "I'm looking for a purple cat. He's like yea high, yea long" - she demonstrated with her arms - "have you seen him?"

The girl shook her head. "Sorry," she muttered. It was only then that Emma noticed the tear stains on her face.

"It's okay," Emma replied. She sat down across from the girl. It had been a while since she talked to someone her own age, and she wasn't sure she remembered how, but some part of her told her she couldn't leave this girl alone. "Are you okay?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. Just - I haven't really been away from home before. It was kind of hard saying goodbye." "It's okay," Emma replied. "I get that." She sort of did, anyway. She missed her grandma and her house in the woods, but she was so ready to see something new. "I'm Emma, by the way. What's your name?"

"Alyssa." She gave Emma a shy smile and held out a hand awkwardly. Emma smiled and shook her hand, as Alyssa seemed to register something else. "Wait - did you say you have a purple cat?"

Emma laughed. "Yeah. I can't figure out why - I've gone around the woods to see if there's a purple jungle cat or something somewhere. But nothing that I could see."

"I've heard of Wizarding cats that were bred to camouflage," Alyssa offered.

"Really?"

Alyssa nodded. "Like, they had powers at one point in time - invisibility or combustion powers or things like that - and the ones that could conceal themselves were the ones that survived because Muggles wouldn't notice them."

"Wow," Emma replied. "How do you know about that?"

"I don't know," Alyssa shrugged. "I have a book on weird beast facts. It's cool stuff."

"It sounds like cool stuff." Emma liked listening to Alyssa talk - she was getting this sparkle in her eye just listing one fact about cats. For some reason, Emma liked the feeling of making Alyssa excited about something. "What are some other good facts?"

The rest of the ride continued like this - Alyssa talking about all the interesting things she'd picked up from her books, and Emma mentioning the kinds of things she liked to learn around the house, from botany to the guitar she found in her grandma's attic. When the snack cart came around, they both went a little crazy. Emma was more of an Every Flavor Beans fan ("what, they're fun! Besides, I've got all the chocolate frog cards anyway") while Alyssa was a bigger Chocolate Frogs person ("you know you like them! Besides, my mother hates chocolate so I've only got like three cards"), but they got a little of everything, cracking each other up as they tried to see who could eat the most Pumpkin Pasties in thirty seconds and Emma daring Alyssa to try a disturbingly green Every Flavor Bean (Emma finally ate it, unable to tell if it was sour apple or pickle).

Around sunset, just after the girls had changed into their school robes, a small purple face appeared at the curtain. "There you are, Moby!" Emma exclaimed, picking him up before he could run away again. Moby made an expression that was somehow the cat version of rolling his eyes, but he nuzzled Emma's cheek.

Alyssa laughed. "Moby's a funny name for a cat."

"Well, I wanted to name him Whale originally - "

"Whale?"

"He's not doing it now, but seriously - he sounds like a whale when he's scared or angry. But my grandma said he seemed too noble for an animal name, so we agreed on Moby."

"Well, it suits him," Alyssa agreed. "Can I pet him?" Emma nodded, holding him out so Alyssa could scratch his ears. "I wish I had a cat," said Alyssa. "They're so fun and cuddly."

"An owl is good too, though," Emma replied. "More useful, at least."

Alyssa shrugged, regarding the snowy owl in the cage next to her. "My parents just got me her for school. They didn't care what I named her, so I've been calling her Moody - look at her eyes."

Emma peered down. The owl had one brown eye and one brilliant blue eye. "I like it. Is that another book thing?"

"History thing. Pre-Battle of Hogwarts."

"Of course."

Alyssa gave Moby one last pet. "So, your grandma gave him to you?"

"Sort of," Emma replied. "I found him in the woods behind her house, and eventually I got him to trust me. At least, enough so he stuck around."

"She let you bring him all the way home?" Alyssa asked.

Shoot. This was the thing Emma didn't really want to explain. "I've, um, been living with her for the past couple years, actually," she explained. "Once my parents figured out I was a witch, they figured it might be better to have me live with someone who was also magic. So, you know, they'd get it."

It wasn't that she was embarrassed of her grandmother, or even her parents - she was much happier now than she was before and she really was grateful that her grandma was so good to her. But explaining to people that her parents had chosen to give her up wasn't really something she wanted to get into. It definitely wasn't something she liked thinking about more than she had to.

Emma wasn't sure if Alyssa got all that from her answer, but she nodded in what seemed to be some sort of understanding. "Well, Moby's lucky that you decided to bring him," she said finally. "And definitely lucky to have someone who loves him so much." Emma shrugged, looking down at her feet. The last leg of the ride continued in a comfortable silence.

\----

In what felt like no time at all, the train came to a stop and the first-years rowed across the lake to Hogwarts. Emma found herself in front of the hat that her grandmother had spent the past two years telling her about. Her grandmother had been quick to tell her it didn't matter where she ended up - she was a Gryffindor, but she had married a Hufflepuff and didn't feel a sense of house loyalty the way other wizards did. "You get good eggs and rotten eggs no matter where you come from," she liked to say. Emma didn't really care where she ended up - she just hoped she was surrounded by eggs who liked her. People. Whatever.

"When I call your name, please step forward and place the hat on your head," Headmistress McGonagall told the first years. She read off the first name: "Abbott, Sally!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Being in the middle of the alphabet, Emma felt her stomach turning as one by one, her fellow first-years were sorted into houses. One tall boy in Gryffindor. A redheaded girl in Slytherin.

"Greene, Alyssa!" Alyssa broke from the group, glancing over at Emma nervously before stepping forward. Emma did her best to smile back, despite her own nerves.

"RAVENCLAW!" Alyssa took the hat off her head and walked shakily over to the table where students in blue were waiting to high-five her and give her a seat. Was it just Emma's imagination, though, or did Alyssa look...less than thrilled about the Hat's decision? She was smiling as she sat down, but at least from Emma's perspective it wasn't anything close to the goofy smile she had shown her as she was exclaiming over her new Chocolate Frog cards. But then again, they had only known each other a few hours. And Alyssa was very clearly smart, and excited to learn. And Ravenclaw was a very good house. It was probably just her imagination, she decided.

The Sorting continued. A "Klein, Shelby!" to Gryffindor. A "Lionel, Kaylee!" to Slytherin. A "McSporran, Rachael!" to Hufflepuff, and then -

"Nolan, Emma!"

Emma stumbled out of the line and placed the hat on her head. She knew what to expect: the hat would deliberate for some time in her ear, until it shouted out a decision for the whole school to hear. When the hat fell over her eyes, she heard that voice in her ear - it was a weird sensation, like the voice in her head was suddenly sitting right next to her.

"Hmmm," mused the hat. "This is an interesting head we have here. A great deal of compassion, for sure. And certainly a lot of talent, my goodness. And something very brave in there, too - where should you go?"

Emma swung her legs back and forth. She'd never given herself as much consideration as this hat was doing now, and it was a little unnerving to sit through.

"You know, Emma, I could see you in a few places," the hat continued. "I think there's a good sign you'll be happy in Hufflepuff." 

Emma got ready to stand up, but the hat wasn't done. "But, you know - I don't think there's much Hufflepuff could give you that you don't have inside of you already. But I do think you could use the kindness and courage that's already inside of you, and I think Gryffindor could do a lot of good for you if that's what you'd like. How do you feel about that?"

Emma knew this would be a big deal to some people. There were two other families in her grandmother's neck of the woods: one had five year old twins who were already determined to be Gryffindors one day, and one had a boy a few years older than her who refused to let anyone forget he was a Slytherin. But in the two years since she'd started living in the wizarding world full-time, she couldn't seem to make herself care about houses. And this hat was literally looking at everything inside her head now - it probably made sense to trust its judgment. So she shrugged.

"Very well then," said the hat, "better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Emma barely registered the applause as she slipped the hat off of her head, thankfully only tripping over her robes once on the way to the table. She tried to think about how good the food was, and how kind her prefects were to her, and how maybe she could make friends with the boy and girl at the end of the table who yelled at Peeves when he tried to dump mayonnaise in her hair. She tried to ignore the voice in her head that was wondering already if she should have just gone to Hufflepuff. How the hat could talk all it wanted about how great she could be one day, but it wouldn't change the fact that right she was shy and clumsy and couldn't sleep at night unless she was cuddling her cat. She was no hero, no chosen one, and definitely not someone exciting.

And she tried not to wonder if those few hours on the train were the only few she would spend with Alyssa. She already missed how nice it had felt to be alone with her, eating Chocolate Frogs and discussing whether it would be better to have a talking cow or an owl that could turn invisible. Emma managed to catch Alyssa's eye once during the headmistress's speech, but they were too far away to talk.

\---

Emma had decided not to try for Quidditch her first year. Her grandmother had let her play around on her old broom every now and then, and the next town over had a minor league Quidditch team that they saw play every now and then, but she knew she wasn't as good as some of the older students and frankly didn't want to go against them at tryouts. Besides, even without Quidditch she had a busy enough schedule - turns out magic was no joke. In the rare quiet moments when she wasn't trying to figure out how to navigate the staircases (she had already somehow ended up on the seven and a halfth floor more than once, to the great amusement of a portrait of six singing goats) or do her massive amounts of homework, she liked to sit on her bed with Moby and read. She didn't need to be up at the crack of dawn with a broom anyway.

So the first time she saw what a big deal Quidditch was was late in October, at the Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw match. Not having a strong attachment to either house, Emma went mostly because everyone was going, and apparently the first game of the season was a big deal. She planned to bring her book and maybe get some work done on her Charms essay while she sat in the stands. This plan was immediately shot down as she attempted to make her way to the Quidditch field. She couldn't step without ruining the picture of a group of Ravenclaw girls, or without Slytherins trying to sell marked-up Chocolate Frogs. Even the other houses took it upon themselves to get into the Quidditch spirit - one group of Hufflepuffs had somehow crafted a giant eagle head that shouted out encouragements to the Ravenclaws. The minor-league games that Emma had seen before were nothing like this, and she found herself overwhelmed by all the excitement and noise around her. Desperately wishing they would move more quickly to Sound-Cancelling Charms, she did the next best thing: she pulled on the headphones she and her grandmother picked up in a Muggle shop that did a surprisingly good job of blocking out the sound around her, pushed her way through the crowd, and found the highest bleacher to sit on. She sat down quickly and tried to focus on the words on her page, breathing hard.

Just as she was managing to get her heart rate back to normal, she heard a voice say something behind her. She pulled off her headphones and turned around.

"What?"

"I said, not one for Quidditch?"

Emma blinked, pushing her glasses back up her nose.

Two older students, at least fifth-years by the looks of them, sat to her right. Neither of them looked as uninterested as she was - the blonde girl wore a Slytherin hat and a Ravenclaw scarf, while the somewhat stocky boy next to her wore two sock puppets: a blue eagle on one hand and a green snake on the other. But neither looked nearly as crazy as the students still entering.

"No. Not at all, really," she replied. "Sorry."

"What for?" the girl laughed. "Quidditch kind of sucks."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Angie, you play Quidditch."

"Okay, fair," she conceded. "But only because there's nothing else to do at this fucking school" - she glanced sideways at Emma - "sorry. Freaking school."

"You could join the frog - "

"Don't you dare suggest the frog choir!"

"I'm telling you, you're missing out!"

The girl - Angie? - looked bored by this point, as though they'd had this argument a million times before. She turned back to Emma. "Sorry. Didn't mean to pull you into all of that. I'm Angie, by the way. And this is Barry. We're both fifth years." The boy gave Emma a thumbs-up.

"I'm Emma. First year. And it's okay," said Emma, still a little overwhelmed but in a good way this time. These two seemed so relaxed compared to everyone else at Hogwarts. She cleared her throat. "So, do you both play Quidditch, or - "

Barry nearly gagged. "Never! I can't do sports to save my life."

"I do," said Angie. "Gryffindor keeper. And Barry is - "

"Hufflepuff moral support." He held up his two puppets. "Wait, Emma - check these out."

"Oh, god," Angie muttered.

Before Emma could ask why, Barry opened the puppets' mouths and, to Emma's surprise, they began to sing some duet in high-pitched versions of Barry's voice.

"Shit," he muttered. "They're off-key again."

Angie glared at him. "Barry, don't curse in front of the kid - "

"I don't mind." Emma stared at Barry in wonderment. "Did you write that?"

"No," Angie groaned. "Please don't get him start -"

"It's from a Muggle musical, but it's about witches and magic and friendship and it's so good!" exclaimed Barry, waving his arms around as his puppets continued to warble off-key. "Someday I'm going to stage it right here at Hogwarts, and I'll play Galinda, and it'll be so much fun!"

Emma had a lot more questions, but one look at Angie and she decided she'd save them for another time. For right now, she smiled and wished him luck.

Angie took another look at her. "You didn't bring a coat or anything?"

Emma shook her head. "I don't get cold too easily."

Angie shrugged. "Well, I don't want you getting cold today," she decided, taking off her scarf and throwing it over Emma's shoulders. "You'll have to be part of our cheer squad. You can root for Trent, and I'll root for Dee Dee."

"Who are they?"

"Our other friends. Ravenclaw and Slytherin captains," Barry replied, before turning back to his puppets. He hummed a note, and the puppets hummed it back.

"Okay. So, Angie, you're the Gryffindor captain?"

Now Barry rolled his eyes. "Oh, Emma, don't go there - "

"It's Johnson-Weasley." Angie's cheeks were beginning to grow pink. "Never mind that I was on the team before she was, and somehow I can block sixteen shots before she catches one stupid Snitch, but no, Longbottom says she graduates first - "

"Angie, shut up!" Barry elbowed her in the side. "Here they come!" He waved his puppets in the air as they sang some long, complicated series of notes. Above them, students in blue and green robes began to fly around, warming up before the game officially started. Angie and Barry pointed out a tall boy in blue robes - Trent, the one Emma was supposedly cheering for - and a girl in green robes with long brown hair, who must be their friend Dee Dee.

But another player caught Emma's eye as she watched them line up around Madam Hooch. A small one in blue robes, whose long brown braids blew behind her as she hovered between two much larger Slytherins. Emma felt her stomach jump a little with the recognition, although she wasn't quite sure why.

"Alyssa?"

Barry turned to her. "Who?"

Emma looked down. "Nothing. Sorry. My...friend."

Honestly, Emma wasn't sure if she and Alyssa were officially friends. She hadn't even really seen her since the Sorting ceremony; they had to eat at their House tables, and the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first-years had no classes together. Emma would be happy to be friends with her, for sure, but she kind of thought Alyssa had forgotten about her. Otherwise she would have talked to her - right?

But Barry just shrugged. "A first year? Impressive!" He turned back to watch the game, as Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle into the air.

It was funny - Emma was never really alone at school. She really was happy: for the first time in her life she knew what it was like to be surrounded by people like her, and it was nice to not have to feel different. But she was starting to see that it was possible to be surrounded by other people and still feel lonely. Maybe because she didn't like hanging out in the common room, where the other first years liked to play Exploding Snap or pull pranks on Teddy Lupin whenever he started getting too uptight? Maybe because she didn't think Kevin was all that cute and wasn't interested in whispering with the other girls about it? Maybe because Hogwarts was amazing and everything she imagined it would be, but still loud and overwhelming and sometimes she didn't want to admit how scared she was of the staircases?

But right now, sitting with two older students who didn't seem to think she was too much, or boring, or weird, Emma felt a kind of nervous happiness. This must have been what her grandmother was talking about when she said Emma would come into her own at Hogwarts.

At the end of the game, once Ravenclaw caught the Snitch and Ravenclaws all over the stadium burst into cheers (and Barry raised his eagle puppet as it let out a high note), Barry and Angie pulled Emma up.

"What's going on?" Emma asked.

"We're gonna go say hi to Trent and Dee Dee," Angie explained. "Do you want to come? We can introduce you."

"Um -"

"We won't be able to stay long anyway," Barry added. "They'll have to get back to their common rooms, and Trent'll be super smug and annoying, so we'll say hi and then duck out. Does that sound good?"

Emma nodded, grateful that Barry somehow understood what was going through her head. "Sure."

The three of them headed down into the stadium, where at least half of the Ravenclaw house was surrounding their team and cheering. Barry ducked through the crowd, letting his puppets give out a few shrieks so people would move away, while Angie led Emma over to where a girl in green robes had just landed.

"That was a great shot at the end," Angie called out to her.

Dee Dee smirked. Emma couldn't help but notice how she carried herself so proudly, as though she was accepting the Quidditch World Cup rather than having just lost the first game of the season. "I know," she replied. "Already excited for our match?"

"Please. I'm nearly pissing myself," Angie deadpanned. She turned back to Emma. "By the way, Dee Dee, meet Emma. She's our new friend."

"Dee Dee! Emma's gonna be in Wicked with us when we do it!" Barry called out, dragging a tall boy through the crowd over to them.

"You are?" Dee Dee asked, just as Emma asked, "I am?"

"Yep. No fighting it." Barry nearly skipped the rest of the way over. "Emma, this is Trent. He's also gonna be in it."

Trent held out a hand for Emma to shake, in an oddly formal way that made laughter bubble up in Emma's throat. "Are you a Muggle born or do you just appreciate good theatre when you see it?"

Emma let go of his hand. She really didn't like answering this question - technically she wasn't, but she might as well have been? And then how did she get into explaining her parents, and her grandmother, and -

"Emma, blink three times if you need help," Angie muttered, effectively changing the subject. Emma relaxed again.

"I didn't grow up with Muggles," Trent continued, "but I did a course on Muggle Theatre at WAMDA this summer - that's the Wizarding Academy for Musical and Dramatic Arts, you know - "

"Oh, really?" Dee Dee interrupted. "I didn't know. You went a whole five minutes without mentioning WAMDA, Trent, and I forgot all about it."

"Shut up, you're just mad we beat you -"

"It was a technicality! If you hadn't caught the Snitch - "

"Emma?"

Emma turned around, wondering what other insane fifth-year she was about to meet, but instead felt the same lurch in her stomach she'd felt before.

"Hey, Alyssa."

"Hi!" Alyssa threw her arms around Emma, who hugged her back in surprise. Alyssa pulled back - she was a little sweaty still, but she had a big smile on her face. "Where have you been?"

"I don't know. Um...the library. My room." Why was she talking so dumb? Alyssa didn't really care about that. Say something nice. "You were, um, really good up there. You're really fast."

Alyssa grinned bigger. "Thanks! It was a lot of fun." She looked Emma up and down. "Thanks for your support."

Emma looked down, suddenly remembering she was still wearing Angie's scarf. "Go Ravenclaw. And sports ball, and stuff." Shoot. That was something Barry had said more than once during the game, but what if Alyssa was insulted?

But she didn't seem to be. She just laughed. "So what brings you down to the field?"

Just as Emma was about to introduce Alyssa to her new friends - if that could be the word - another girl ran over to them. "Alyssa! The party is about to start in the common room." She glanced over at Emma, who suddenly felt a little out of place on the field.

"I'm coming!" Alyssa gave Emma one last hug. "Will I see you soon?"

Emma's mouth dropped open, a little. "Okay."

"Awesome!" Alyssa let go and ran after her friend. Emma, suddenly ready to go herself, gave the scarf back to Angie and ran back to the Gryffindor common room.

\---

Emma ended up not actually seeing Alyssa very soon.

It wasn't really anyone's fault - Alyssa presumably did her studying in the Ravenclaw common room, while Emma tended to work on her bed or in the library. And they both had a ton of work to do. Even though Emma now spent a decent amount of time with her fifth-year friends, who spent a lot of time worrying about OWLs and their (according to Trent) much harder classes, she was still pretty overwhelmed by how much work Hogwarts was. For every time she managed a decent hovering charm or correctly sent sparks flying towards her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, her potions would bubble over and no matter what was supposed to be doing in Transfiguration, it would always come out looking like a bright blue beetle. When Christmas came around, Emma went home but Alyssa didn't; any hope of seeing her on the Hogwarts Express didn't happen. After Ravenclaw Quidditch games they would say hi quickly on the field, but they never got to talk for long.

At least Emma didn't feel so alone at school events anymore. Angie would sometimes join Emma at her end of the table; not every day, but enough so that Emma felt comfortable talking to her about whatever was on her mind. She would sit with Barry at Quidditch games, along with whichever of the other three wasn't playing that day. Turned out Barry had a Gryffindor puppet too, a red lion with a lovely deep voice; but whenever Hufflepuff played, Barry would show up in a full badger suit complete with a yellow sweater and black tutu. Emma never fully got into the costume spirit, but she did learn to enjoy watching the games. As much as Angie, Trent, and Dee Dee claimed to hate Quidditch - why, Emma couldn't really tell - they sure did know a lot about it, and by the last game of the season Emma was chatting with Trent about how if the Hufflepuff beaters had been just a little more organized they might have had a real chance. They cheered for Dee Dee as she held up the Quidditch cup, and Emma considered asking her grandmother to show her how to play a little better over the summer.

And as for the rest of her time? She wrote to her grandmother. She played with Moby. She had even learned to get along with the other Gryffindor girls, especially after they learned how good Moby was at sniffing out all the passages that led to the kitchens. Emma and Moby would return with midnight snacks, and in return they would help Emma with her classes. One, Shelby, turned out to be surprisingly good at transfiguration, which they all appreciated. 

The end of the year came, and Slytherin had won the house cup (largely due to their Quidditch victory). Emma didn't really mind; she was disappointed for her house, but she herself had worked hard enough in all of her classes and hadn't screwed up in any major way. She was okay with second.

Her exam grades came back, and she was surprised to see they were mostly okay - she was able to make up for mediocre practical skills with great essays, and she had even managed to correctly turn a teacup into a stuffed pig and back again. All things considered, it was a good first year - nothing too exciting, nothing too dangerous. She hadn't left a school hero or the most popular or even more remarkable than when she came in, but it was an okay year. At least for now, she didn't need more.

Sure, when her older friends all sat in the prefect car on the way home, and there wasn't enough space for her in the car with the other Gryffindor girls, and she found herself alone in a compartment with Moby again, she kind of wished she had one good friend to share the space with. But it was okay. At least Moby didn't run away this time.

Still, she was surprised when the compartment door opened and a familiar face stood there. She was a little taller than she was at the beginning of the year, and seemed a little tired after finals and banquet and the long train ride, but she smiled when she saw Emma.

"Can I sit with you for a bit?" she asked.

Emma blinked, surprised. "Sure."

Alyssa sat down across from Emma, placing Moody's cage next to her. Emma had forgotten about Moody; her blue eye and brown eye stared at her curiously. "So how was the rest of your year?" she asked.

"Okay," Emma replied. "How about you?"

Alyssa glanced out the window, then down at her shoes. She hadn't changed into her street clothes yet, and she fiddled with her robe as she spoke. "Okay. It was really hard."

Emma laughed a little. "Yeah. No one tells you how hard it really is here."

"Yeah." Alyssa glanced up at Emma. "I'm kind of nervous for next year."

"Why?"

"I don't know." She went back to playing with her robe. "I just kind of have a feeling that next year things are gonna get really weird."

"They're not weird enough for you already?" Emma asked. "We're at Hogwarts. The staircases _move_." 

"True." Alyssa didn't look up. "I don't know. I just...I'm sorry I didn't see you all year. I just kind of wanted to be here now. For the end of the year."

Emma wondered if she should consider why Alyssa took now of all times to come talk to her, but she decided ultimately it didn't matter. She was here, and Emma didn't even know why, but the fact that Alyssa wanted to see her made what felt like liquid happiness begin to bubble up inside her. 

She heard the candy cart coming up the aisle, and turned toward Alyssa. "Want to keep going on your Chocolate Frog collection? I can pay."

"Emma, you don't have to -"

Emma shook her head. "It'll be my birthday present to you. Don't worry about it."

"But my birthday isn't for another month -"

"Then I owe you one before the summer. I'm happy to do it."

Alyssa tried to protest again, but Emma had already paid. She just gave up and thanked Emma.

The rest of the ride was spent debating the merits of a Dumbledore card versus a Hermione Granger card, and wondering how hard it would be to magic your own face onto the cards. Alyssa began to relax, eventually warming up enough that she started making up poems that would go on their Chocolate Frog cards, coming up with ridiculous rhymes that made Emma crack up. Emma liked this side of Alyssa - the side that, even if they only spent three hours of this year together, made her feel like she'd known Alyssa forever.

All too soon the train pulled into Platform Nine and Three Quarters, and Emma and Alyssa picked up their things as they prepared to get off.

"So do you have plans for the summer?" asked Alyssa.

"Not really," Emma replied. "I'll probably spend a lot of time in my grandma's garden. Maybe explore the woods a little more and look for Moby's parents. What about you?"

"My mom travels a lot for work," Alyssa said, "so I'm sure I'll go with her. And my dad and I have a yearly camping trip, so that'll happen. And definitely a lot of reading. Gotta stay on top of things for next year."

"Of course." Emma glanced over at Alyssa. "Just - take it easy this summer, okay?"

"I'll try." She gave Emma one last quick hug. "Write to me?"

"Sure."

And together they walked off the train back into the real world.


	2. Year Two: School Spirit and Theatre Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who left comments last time! This took a lot longer than I expected but I guess I finished in time for closing? Which makes me really sad but also I genuinely cannot wait for the tour and for school productions to start, this show is gonna do so much good in the world even after Broadway.  
> Anyway it was a ton of fun to write, hope you enjoy!

It was interesting how much things could change over a summer. Not for Emma - she felt lost and scared last year, and she felt lost and scared this year. The only difference was, this year, she was completely alone in that. 

It was nearing the end of transfiguration, and everyone else had managed to turn their beetles into buttons no problem. Meanwhile, Emma was red-faced and near tears as she tried to make the stupid beetle slow down so she could do the spell.

Last year, everyone was happy to be lost together. Maybe the girls in her room hadn't exactly liked her, but at least they were in the same boat as her. Shelby Klein had been nice when she explained how to do a silencing spell. Lucy Weasley had thanked her for her essay help by going over combustion charms with her, and she had even cried with Abby Finnegan the night before exams. 

This year, Shelby spent a good amount of her time loudly complaining about her test grades, which were still usually a full letter higher than Emma's. Not to mention two spots had opened on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and it was all the others could talk about. Emma wasn't planning on trying herself. She didn't know if she wanted to, but after hearing the other girls talk about tryouts with so much wanting in their voices - and thinking about how most of the other people trying would be much older and bigger than her - Emma didn't think it would be worth the risk.

"Miss Nolan, please hurry up!"

Professor McGonagall walked over to Emma's station. Emma knew the headmistress was one of the best transfiguration teachers Hogwarts had had in decades. It didn't change the fact that Emma wanted to throw up every time she so much as walked down the transfiguration hallway. She could feel her hands shaking now as McGonagall stood over her, her dark eyes staring straight into Emma's own. 

"Now, Miss Nolan. Can you tell me what properties you have to consider when preparing your spell in this case?" 

"Um..." Emma tried to ignore how much she was sweating. "State of matter. Size. Presence of....presence of organic materials."

McGonagall watched Emma impatiently. "There's one more, Miss Nolan."

Last year, Emma had friends she could ask for help with this stuff. No matter how much they would talk about how easy Emma's homework was compared to theirs, her older friends would always help her if she asked for it. One or more of them was usually in the library when she was, and they all had their own ways of helping. Trent could explain the concepts in ways that Emma could actually understand. Dee Dee would complain about whichever professor was making Emma crazy until Emma calmed down and was able to focus on the homework herself. Barry would sneak her food from his candy stash, ones that she could eat without Madam Pince noticing. Angie could also explain concepts really well, and if Emma started to get upset over a problem she would run up to Gryffindor tower and bring down Moby, so Emma could hug him until she felt better.

This year, something was off. The night of the Sorting Ceremony, Barry, Angie, Dee Dee, and Trent hung around the Hufflepuff table until Professor Macmillan broke them up to go to their other tables. Angie had sat down across from Barry, both of them leaning in close to talk to each other. Emma didn't know what was going on, but it was clearly something bad. She knew the four of them as the type to go all out for events like the Sorting Ceremony. In order for Barry to not be literally on the tables cheering for the Hufflepuff first-years instead of talking to Angie with his eyes down, or for Trent and Dee Dee to be sitting quietly and sending worried looks in Barry's direction when they should be yelling at each other over who got more new students, something must be really wrong.

It wasn't until the next morning that Angie found Emma at breakfast and gave her a quick hug. She asked about Emma's summer, and talked a little about being back with her parents and some dance class she took while she was home - it was the one Muggle hobby she kept up with after starting at Hogwarts, she explained. But when Emma asked if Barry was okay, she went quiet.

"Yeah - he will be," she began. "But I don't think it's really my place to - he'll tell you when he's ready."

"Can I do anything for him in the meantime?" asked Emma.

Angie shrugged. "Give him time, I guess? And oh - don't ask him about his summer."

"Why?"

Angie looked towards where Barry was sitting and eating his eggs over at the Hufflepuff table. He seemed less upset than he had the night before, if very tired. "Just trust me on this one, okay?"

"Okay."

Angie got up soon after that for class, leaving Emma alone at the table. They hadn't talked since. And since Barry still didn't seem like his old self, and every time she saw the others they were huddled together in some sort of serious conversation, she didn't do more than say hi. It wasn't worth bothering them over something as dumb as her homework.

"Miss Nolan? Do you know the fourth property to consider?"

Now the others were watching her. Kevin, the second to last student to finish, was watching her with the smirk of the person who knows at least they're not the dumbest in the room. _Come on, Emma,_ she thought. _You know the concepts. It's everything else you can't do._

"Capacity for motion," she muttered. Even her ears were red.

McGonagall nodded. "Those of you who have succeeded, you're free to go. Miss Nolan, let's finish this."

Everyone else filed out of the room. Emma hoped she'd imagined the giggle someone - probably Shelby or Avery - stifled on the way out.

McGonagall sat down next to her. "So if you know the four properties, you can account for all of them in your spell. Can I see it?"

Emma tried to do the right movement - _long swish, downward flick_. " _Inmoviboto!"_ She knew McGonagall could hear how shaky her breath was. She also knew she wouldn't care.

A force came out of her wand, hitting the beetle squarely in the side. Emma stared at the button's antennae and legs.

McGonagall sighed. "Not the worst one today, Miss Nolan."

Emma swallowed. "So can I go?"

McGonagall nodded. "You know, Miss Nolan - you know the concepts just fine. Better than plenty of your classmates. You're just missing the conviction. As these spells get more challenging, those who've mastered their style and confidence will be the ones who succeed. I'd love to see you work at that a little more."

"Thank you, Professor McGonagall." Emma grabbed her bag, head down as she walked towards the door, not noticing the group of Ravenclaws coming in. Emma walked straight into one of them, sending books flying.

Emma immediately dropped down and picked them up, muttering an apology and handing them to the girl standing above her with the long brown braids. Her stomach jumped. _Alyssa._

"Hey, Emma!" Alyssa smiled down at her, but the smile disappeared as she noticed the expression on Emma's face. "Whoa, are you okay?"

Emma closed her eyes, swallowing hard. She couldn't look at Alyssa in this moment. "I'm okay. Sorry. Gotta go to class." She ran out of the room, waiting till she was a safe distance away before letting the tears fall down her face.

That was another thing. Last year, Alyssa was her friend. Or at least, she thought she was. They said hi in the hallways, and they had their train rides. And then over the summer, Emma had gotten an owl from Alyssa.

It wasn't really all that special. It wasn't even the only owl she'd gotten that summer; Angie and Trent had both sent her birthday cards when she turned twelve in August. Trent had even sent her a songbook that played all the songs in it out loud; she wasn't sure if it was because he wanted her to hear them or if he just wanted to brag about being back at WAMDA, but she appreciated it either way. So she couldn't really explain why she'd gotten so excited to see Moody approach her window one morning, but she removed the letter from Moody's leg and brought her downstairs for water, trying to ignore how loudly her heart was thumping. 

Inside the envelope was a picture of Alyssa by a lake. Her hair was messier than she ever let it get at school, and she was holding up a giant purple fish; it was breathing in the picture somehow, and only looked slightly annoyed about being held by a girl who kept nearly dropping it as she broke into laughter. A man - presumably Alyssa's dad - was holding up the camera so he could be in the picture too, rolling his eyes fondly as he captured them both in the moment. On the back was a note:

_Hey Emma! Saw Bathilda here and she made me think of Moby - any relation, you think? Hope your summer's going great! Alyssa_

Emma laughed and ran upstairs to write a reply, but after about three drafts (and Betsy knocking on her door to make sure she'd even woken up that day), she gave up. Alyssa didn't need three feet of parchment with every detail of Emma's summer in it. She had her own things to think about. So she wrote some short thing about how funny the picture was and how her summer was going pretty good and how she hoped Alyssa had had a good camping trip. And then she read it three more times to make sure it sounded okay. Moody was tapping her foot impatiently on the windowsill by the time Emma finally finished.

She wished she knew why Alyssa's note had been so exciting to her. Sure, Emma liked hanging out with her, but so did everyone else in their year. After all, she was smart, even for a Ravenclaw. She was the only first-year to make a Quidditch team. And on top of all of that she was funny and kind and humble, which meant everyone wanted to be around her all the time. How she'd managed to escape all her other friends to sit with Emma on the train ride home, Emma thought as she and Betsy drove to the station (five hours ahead of schedule - they'd learned from last year's mistakes), she had no idea.

Still, when she spent the ride to Hogwarts alone in a compartment with Moby, she couldn't help but feel let down.

_It's okay,_ she tried to remind herself. Angie and Barry and Trent and Dee Dee had to sit in the prefects' car, after all. And Alyssa was probably off somewhere with her other friends. They'd only really spent about three hours together last year, and sent two notes over the summer. Probably a bunch of other people had gotten notes, too - maybe even actual letters. It was fine. As long as Alyssa was happy.

She tried to ignore the sudden sadness she felt when she boarded the carriage to Hogwarts with three Slytherin fourth years she'd never met before, who were laughing loudly as she climbed in but now sat in awkward silence. And she spotted a girl with long brown braids and blue robes walking with two other girls towards a different carriage.

So that was the first time she'd really seen Alyssa all year. And she'd blown it by running away and crying. 

She used to calm herself down by hugging Moby, but even that wasn't working anymore. Moby kept doing this thing where after she fell asleep at night, he would slip out of her arms and run off. To where, Emma didn't know; he kept coming back in the morning covered in some sort of shiny blue mud. He wouldn't let her wash him without scratching her, and half the time he wasn't even around during the day. Things just stunk overall, and she hated feeling like the worst Gryffindor in her year, and even if this was a sign that she was too old to be relying on her cat it sure sucked in the meantime.

"Damn it," she whispered. She wasn't used to cursing and was surprised how cathartic the word felt on her tongue, but it wasn't cathartic enough to stop her from crying more.

That was it, she decided. She needed to find some other way to be happy this year. Because waiting for people who kept ignoring her, and trying to get along with people who didn't like her, and just barely making it through her classes wasn't doing it. This year she would find something else to make her happy. She wasn't sure what it would be yet, but it would be something.

* * *

The first Quidditch game - Gryffindor versus Slytherin - was at the beginning of October, and Emma didn't really want to go. She'd barely seen her friends other than saying hi quickly in the halls, even though Barry was starting to seem a little more like himself. Even though part of her knew it was a dumb thought, another part of her was sure that Trent and Barry wouldn't want her to sit with them at all. 

But the morning of the game, when Emma was just rolling out of bed and getting ready for a morning of reading and cuddling Moby to keep him from running away again, Shelby noticed her.

"Emma!" she called. "Are you gonna come watch the game with us?"

Wondering why Shelby had picked this moment to treat Emma as part of the group, Emma turned around and saw her and Lucy and Abby pulling on various amounts of red and gold gear. Lucy had even painted her face so it flashed red and gold.

Emma's heart sank. That was it. Avery Spinnet-Wilson was the first Gryffindor in their year to make the Quidditch team. It was no surprise - her mom played professional Quidditch and she had spent half her life traveling the world for her mom's games - but all her roommates had been talking about for weeks was Avery's first game. Emma would look terrible if she purposely didn't show up.

Not that she cared what her roommates thought of her. But she knew they already had enough to talk about behind her back. How dumb she was in class, how often she cried, how she never talked to anyone. She didn't need to add "rude to Avery" to the list.

So she smiled tightly. "Yeah, I am."

Shelby grinned. "Oh my god, can we please dress you up for it? I got all this gear over the summer, I have so much extra!"

Emma was not a big fan of dressing up. She preferred watching what other people did - she had grown very fond of Barry's badger costume. But tutus and face paint had never been her thing - at Barry's insistence she had started wearing red shirts on game days, but she'd never gone farther. Still, Shelby was offering her a red tutu and gold antennae that looked like they came from some Muggle shop with the biggest smile Emma had seen aimed in her direction. So she nodded and slipped them on. The tutu was itchy and she didn't like the way the antennae pulled at her hair, but it was okay. It was just for a few hours.

It was still early, so Emma was expecting to stay in the room a little while longer, but after about five minutes of the others exclaiming how cute Emma looked with her hair out of her face, they started heading towards the door.

"Doesn't the game not start till noon?" asked Emma.

The others laughed. "Haven't you ever been on the grounds before games?" asked Abby.

No, Emma had not, for good reason. She had learned last year the best thing to do was sneak past the crowds on the grounds straight to the stands. Between the Gryffindors singing their cheers at the top of their lungs and the Slytherins shouting out bets for who would win and all the older students half-drunk on butterbeer, Emma found the grounds much too overwhelming to spend more than a few minutes on them. And considering today was the Gryffindor-Slytherin game - the two craziest houses on game days - today would be especially bad.

But as she tried to explain this to the others, they just laughed. "I have a plan," said Shelby as she opened the door to the common room. "Today, we're gonna teach you how to love game days."

She liked them just fine, Emma wanted to say, she just didn't want to do it today. She didn't want to see Barry and Trent ignoring her like they had been all month. But the others were pulling her out the door. Emma wished she could figure out how muffling charms worked already.

Sure enough, the grounds were insane. Lucy and Abby got caught up at a stand where some Slytherin was standing with a display of multicolored toads ("Can sing any song at any volume you like! Only twelve Galleons per toad!"), while Shelby shrugged and walked away - "I've tried to tell them everything the Slytherins sell are scams but they don't listen," she explained ruefully. So she dragged Emma from stand to stand, showing Emma everything she had learned to love the year before. Emma tried to smile along - it was clear Shelby was trying to be nice, even if Emma wasn't sure where it was coming from or why - but the stands were so loud and crowded that she could barely enjoy the five-Galleon Chocolate Frog Shelby insisted she buy. She nodded along to Shelby's monologue about the best game stand while she tried to control her breathing.

The last stand before they reached the stadium was the least busy. From a distance all Emma could see was two giant purple hats. As they got closer, she could hear one of them shouting.

"Come join the new and improved Hogwarts Drama Society! First full production since 1935 - we won't burn down the Great Hall this time around!"

"What's going on over there?" asked Shelby. But Emma was far ahead of her, suddenly having an idea of who might be under those purple hats.

"You've heard of transfiguring teapots, now transfigure your life in the Hogwarts Drama Society!" Trent's voice boomed out above the others around him - maybe because everyone else was quietly shifting away as he cried louder. "Featuring an original musical by yours truly -"

"Hey, I helped!" A shorter figure popped out next to Trent. Looking closer, Emma could see the two sock puppets he was holding were wearing matching purple hats.

"But I'm directing -"

"And I'm starring - "

"Emma!" Emma looked over and saw Trent waving wildly in her direction. Barry appeared weirdly subdued.

Emma hesitated. She hadn't had a real conversation with them since last year. Would Barry and Trent actually want to talk to her? Between that and Shelby's sudden friendliness, Emma wasn't really sure what to expect from the people around her nowadays.

"That's our favorite second year, and she's gonna be in the Hogwarts Drama Society!" Trent called out.

"I am?"

"You know them?" asked Shelby.

"Oh - yeah, I -"

"Emma's friend!" Trent ran over from the stand. "Are you gonna join too?"

Shelby blushed. "Oh. No, thank you. I'm not really interested." She turned to Emma. "Should we head in or do you want to wait for the others?"

Emma shrugged. "You can go in. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Shelby ran off, and Emma turned back to Trent. "You really want me to be in this? You know I can't sing or dance, right?"

"Neither can the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, but they're all in the chorus," Trent replied. "It's just for fun - right, Barry?"

Barry looked up from where he was fiddling with the edge of his robe. "Oh, yeah. I got some of my frog choir friends to join - talk about lack of stage presence -"

But Emma's thoughts were elsewhere. "The Ravenclaw Quidditch team is gonna be in the show?"

"Yeah," Trent replied. "It was Dee Dee's idea. We said we'd keep them here for mandatory Quidditch practice over Christmas unless they wanted to join the show. We got thirteen new cast members out of that - now I have to stay for Christmas break to teach Rodgers how to hit a damn Bludger."

Emma felt her heart picking up. The Ravenclaw Quidditch team. And Alyssa wasn't the one to drop. Maybe this would be a chance to make friends with someone who actually seemed nice - who she had things in common with, and didn't ditch her or suddenly stop talking to her for no reason. Maybe it would be fun.

"When do we start?" she asked

"As soon as the script is done," said Trent, his eyes lighting up. "Dee Dee's also gonna be in it. And Angie's choreographing. It's a very thought-provoking story, but I'm trying to finish fast. It's about a witch who has to choose between what's easy and what's right, and being yourself in a world that will never understand you -"

"What's it called?" asked Emma.

Trent grinned. " _Talk to the Wand._ "

* * *

They finished the writing the show at the end of December, and Trent put a notice up for auditions after the break - "Make Hogwarts the school of witchcraft, wizardry, and theatre magic!" Barry and whichever of the group didn't have a game would set up their booth, and sometimes Emma would join them. It seemed whatever happened at the beginning of the year had passed; Angie went back to sitting with Emma at meals every now and then, and Dee Dee and Trent were beginning to train her in singing and acting, despite her protests. The only one who still seemed distant was Barry. Emma couldn't figure out what she'd done to make him look so uncomfortable every time she tried to talk to him, but she felt awful about it. She considered bringing it up to Angie or one of the others, but she didn't want to make anything weird for any of them. So she tried to deal with it as best she could.

When she left for the Great Hall the first Saturday after the break for auditions, she wasn't expecting a huge turnout. She knew from sitting at the stand with the others that people weren't really excited about Trent's work (as they had told him in less than kind terms to his face). She knew almost everyone who was coming was being blackmailed by Trent and Dee Dee (or in the case of the frog choir, asked politely by Barry).

What she wasn't expecting was to see only her four friends and one Slytherin about her age - and five Hufflepuffs, each holding a large frog. Trent was shouting at Dee Dee over the sound of the Hufflepuffs harmonizing with their frogs.

"What do you mean, your team isn't coming?" Trent was waving his hands in the air wildly. "You said your entire team promised!"

"Like you have any right to talk," Dee Dee snarled back. "At least my team bothered to come talk to me! Don't try to tell me your entire team of geniuses got _lost_ or something."

"It's really their own fault." Angie guided Emma to one of the tables to sit and wait. "They didn't think that the Christmas break thing would stop mattering after Christmas break. Now we've lost over half of our cast."

"Wait, so none of the Ravenclaws are coming?" Emma asked.

Angie shook her head. "Or the Slytherins. So that's more than half the people we were expecting gone."

Emma felt her heart sink a little, even though she wasn't sure quite why. "Oh. That really stinks."

"Guys, it's okay! We can make this work!" Barry cut in between Dee Dee and Trent, pulling them apart. "Look, there's still the four of us. Plus the frog choir - and we can actually sing! That's better than a bunch of jocks who can't be bothered to show up anyway, right?"

"But at least they can move well," replied Dee Dee. "And no offense to your group of frogs over here -" she waved to the group as they clutched their frogs defensively - "but this show needs to be big. We need people with presence, and right now we don't have that!"

A girl with curly hair and glasses stepped forward. "Actually, we've found that those in the frog choir exude more confidence compared to the rest of the student body -"

"Not the point!" 

Barry began pacing back and forth. "Look, it's fine. We'll just have to tune down the choreography a bit. And hey, so far we have...ten of us. That's better than nothing, right?"

Trent sighed. "My script called for fifteen in the ensemble alone. And - oh god."

"What?"

Trent began breathing faster. "I just realized - I didn't even think to ask people to be on crew. We're gonna have no cast, no set - "

Emma found herself walking over to Trent. She didn't know exactly what was going on, but she recognized this kind of freakout. She had them all the time. What would she want someone to do for her in this moment?

"Trent?" She reached out a hand. Trent looked at her, wide-eyed.

"It's okay," she said. "Just breathe."

Trent took a few deep breaths in and out. "I just want this show to be really good."

"What about asking the house elves to help with the set?" asked Dee Dee. "I'm sure they'd be willing to help."

"I tried to use them for the Ravenclaw talent show last year," Trent replied. "It goes against the Granger code - we'd have to pay them overtime. Do you have five Galleons an hour per elf?"

"Well, what if we helped?" asked Emma. "Just sets and costumes, right? If we're already here for rehearsal it wouldn't be too much."

Trent looked at her. "You'd really be willing to do that?"

"Sure," said Emma. "I'm already here, right?"

Trent paused, seeming to really think about it. "Okay. That could work." He clapped his hands. "Barry, do you think you and the frog choir could work on sets?"

Barry nodded. "Wait actually, could I do costumes? I have a few great ideas for dance costumes - "

"And I can help Barry," Dee Dee added.

"Sure," said Trent. "Emma, could you help then?"

Emma swallowed. "I mean, I'm not that good at painting - but I can try," she said, noticing how Trent's face was starting to fall.

"Okay. Thank you." Trent let out a sigh of relief. Emma relaxed a little.

* * *

Emma was surprised by how much she liked rehearsal.

Of course, it was hard. Between all of their class schedules and Angie, Trent, and Dee Dee spending at least two nights a week at Quidditch practice, they had to squeeze in rehearsal time whenever they could, which sometimes meant impromptu rehearsals in classrooms in the last hour before curfew, but it was fun anyway. Trent's songs were really catchy, and she enjoyed getting the hang of them - once Dee Dee even said she wasn't a bad singer, which from her was a surprising compliment. Angie's choreography was no joke, but fortunately she was no worse at dancing than anyone in the frog choir.

It was also kind of awesome watching her friends act onstage. Emma didn't really have a chance to see them do anything besides play Quidditch or sit in the stands until now, and it was like watching them transform into entirely different people. Barry was still kind of awkward around her offstage, but when he was performing he seemed so confident and beyond hilarious. And then there was Dee Dee's voice. It was almost scary sitting before her in rehearsal, she was such a powerhouse. 

Meanwhile, painting the sets turned out to be a lot of fun. Since neither Emma nor any of the Hufflepuffs knew enough to make the walls paint themselves, they would come each day with old robes and wear those to paint the set black and green. Emma particularly enjoyed getting to know the Hufflepuffs; they were a lot more relaxed than anyone else she'd met at school.

"Wait, so you genuinely never thought you were a wizard until you turned eleven?" Sally Abbott asked one day. Emma was working with her and Franklin, a fifth year, one day, when the conversation turned to their families.

Franklin shrugged as he dipped his brush back into the black paint. "I guess not? I mean, every once in a while something weird would happen. Like, I remember once when I was about five my parents were watching the news on TV - that's like a photograph that you can change to show anything you want - and I wanted to watch cartoons. So I changed the channel, and when my parents went to go change it back the remote exploded - that's like a wand that you use to control the TV. So little things would happen like that all the time, and I guess once I turned eleven it just finally made sense."

Sally's eyes grew wide. "Did your parents get mad? Mine used to get so annoyed."

Franklin laughed. "I think they were just confused. I think the letter might have been more of a relief for them than for me." He turned to Emma. "What about you? Did your parents know about magic before your letter?"

Emma looked down. She tried to focus on making her lines even. "They weren't too happy about it," she shrugged. 

Franklin looked at her with concern. "Were they okay to you?" he asked. "Is there anything we should -"

"No, no, I'm okay," she said quickly. A memory suddenly came back to her. "I think they were just overwhelmed. I did a lot of crazy stuff - when I was seven I got banned from a petting zoo because one of the cows told me she missed her brother in Scotland. So then I tried to sneak her out but all the other cows followed -"

"Wait, the cows _talked_ to you?" Sally asked. "And you still didn't realize you might be magic?"

"I don't know. I was seven," Emma replied. "And then two years later I met my grandma. She's cool - she's also a witch, so she explained the whole thing to me."

Sally nodded. "I was going to say, if your parents were still being dumb about you being a witch we always have more space in my house over the summer."

Emma almost wanted to laugh - it was such a grand and unexpectedly kind gesture from someone she barely even knew. "Thank you. But they're okay - just kind of ordinary. And my grandma's been really good."

"Side note, you freeing a bunch of cows from a petting zoo is such a Hufflepuff moment," said Franklin. "Did you ever think you might have gone there?"

Emma shrugged. "I don't know. Ask the Sorting Hat."

The question certainly had not left Emma's mind. Especially because she liked talking to the Hufflepuffs more than any of the Gryffindors except maybe Angie, she'd cried at least four times in the past month (twice in class), and nothing big or exciting that was supposed to happen to Gryffindors had ever happened to her. Maybe that was good - she certainly wasn't dreaming of fighting a Dark wizard anytime soon - but it might be nice to have something to hold onto other than the Hat thought she might have a chance of "growing into" being a Gryffindor. That certainly wasn't doing her any good right now.

The conversation moved to other things, and before Emma knew it it was time to clean up. Sally had to be in the scene Trent was rehearsing, so Emma and Franklin picked up the brushes and moved them over to clean them. In this case, "clean" meant trying to make the paint disappear over and over since neither of them could ever remember the spell.

"Do you guys need some help?"

Emma and Franklin turned around. Barry was standing there, still wearing the cape from the scene he had just rehearsed. Emma smiled at him in surprise. He wasn't acting chilly towards her anymore, exactly - just a little hesitant. Emma wasn't quite sure why, but she was happy to see him a little closer to himself.

Franklin grinned. "That would be great, actually. Thanks, Barry."

"No problem." Barry smiled at Franklin before turning back to the brushes. " _Evanesco!_ "

With a slight _pop_ , all of the brushes disappeared. Barry blushed. "Sorry. Didn't mean for that to happen."

Franklin laughed. "It's okay. At least you managed to make the spell work at all."

Barry kicked the ground with his toe. "Yeah. I guess so."

"Thanks, Barry," said Emma.

Before Barry could respond, Trent clapped his hands. "I have an announcement before you all go!" 

The three of them walked back over to where Trent was standing on a table. Barry gravitated over towards Dee Dee. Emma could see him droop his head onto her shoulder and let out a groan as Dee Dee pat him on the head. What was that about?

"Okay," said Trent. "As the show is coming up, I wanted to make a very exciting announcement to you all...can I get a drumroll, please?"

There was a brief moment of silence. After a moment, Sally tapped out a halfhearted drumroll.

"Okay, that's enough for now." Sally stopped drumming. "Anyway, I talked to McGonagall about how exciting it is that we're bringing back the Hogwarts Drama Society. She agreed that we should celebrate, so...we're having an official portrait done of the show! It'll play in a Hogwarts corridor for all future generations of wizardkind to see!"

Dee Dee squealed. "We're gonna be famous!"

"That's right, Dee Dee," said Trent. "This is the start of something exciting."

* * *

The day of the show arrived sooner than Emma expected. She was nervous, but in a good way. All day in class, her mind kept drifting to that night. If she would be able to remember the choreography, what her house would think of it, what the portrait would look like. History of Magic always dragged, but on this particular day, when it was the one thing standing between her and getting to go to the Great Hall to get ready for the show, Emma felt like it would never end.

Emma ate dinner early that night with the rest of the cast. They were going to do the show in the Great Hall after the rest of the school ate dinner. It was so fun - Emma drank in the nervous energy of everyone around her, eating spaghetti at lightning speed and singing through their favorite parts of the show. Sure, Trent looked like he might burst with nerves and Dee Dee looked greener than the makeup she was about to put on, but it was fun nonetheless.

After dinner they all got into costume. Emma slipped on the black cape and blue mask she would wear for the show. It was some sort of metaphor - how no one could ever show their true self or something. Suddenly everything felt a lot more intense. It was like everyone realized that this thing that had been their secret for the past few months was about to go out to the rest of the school, and that was a scary thought. Still, even that had an air of excitement to it. It was fun seeing people run around half in costume, hugging everyone in their path and practicing their harmonies.

Soon Trent ordered them all backstage, which really meant hiding inside the set castle while the rest of the school ate dinner. It was too cramped inside, even with such a small cast, but Emma's heart was beating too fast with all the nervous energy for her to feel claustrophobic.

Eventually the plates disappeared and Emma could hear Professor McGonagall's footsteps on the stage.

"Thank you, everyone," she said. Emma could hear the students sit back down and begin to quiet down. "And now, we have a special event tonight. The revived Hogwarts Drama Society is presenting their first musical tonight - _Speak to the Hand -"_

" _Talk to the Wand!_ " Trent hissed.

"Right. My apologies." Emma could almost hear her swallow laughter. "And now, without further ado, please enjoy the performance."

Emma heard a scattering of applause, before the lights went out and Trent stepped onstage.

The first half of the show went pretty well. Dee Dee had two of her big solos in the first act, and based on the applause the students seemed to be as impressed with her as Emma was. They laughed in all the right parts, and no one messed up the choreography too much.

Almost as impressive as the show itself was the scene transitions. Since they hadn't been able to find a stage crew in time, Trent had the idea of doing word command transfigurations. Emma actually spotted mouths hanging open when after Barry finished one of his songs, and the walls suddenly grew from a tiny bedroom to a massive ballroom.

Things didn't start to fall apart until the second half, right in the middle of a scene between Dee Dee and Barry. Everyone who wasn't in the scene liked to watch it backstage; it had a dance number that a lot of the Hufflepuffs liked to try to do in the wings. Emma came in as the messenger at the end of the scene, to say one of her two lines. The stage lights were bright, but not so bright that she couldn't see the audience; she was able to pick out some faces she didn't have time to notice when she was onstage dancing before. The other Gryffindor girls, who didn't even look bored. And Alyssa over at the Ravenclaw table, who seemed to snap into focus as Emma walked onstage. Emma accidentally made eye contact with her and felt her face grow warm under her mask.

Shoot. _Focus, Emma._ "Sir?" she said, wishing her voice wasn't shaking so much. "They're ready for you."

Barry stood up and nodded. "Let's go."

Emma stood back, prepared to go into the ballroom scene. But suddenly she felt something sharp poke her in the back. She jumped forward and looked behind her; a set tree was growing out of the ground. As the walls moved backwards, changing into a dark sky, she heard a bump - and was that Sally Abbott letting out a shriek?

Emma looked over at Barry, who looked back at her wide-eyed. Dee Dee dodged through the trees, attempting to find the exit.

Suddenly someone poked her in the shoulder. "Go straight to the mob scene," Trent whispered through his teeth.

"But I'm not in my mob costume," Emma whispered back, trying to ignore the confused murmurings coming from the audience.

"Just GO!" Trent hissed. Emma nodded, joining the others in their tiptoe across the stage. No one was wearing the right costume - it was a mix of messenger costumes, princess dresses, and Franklin in a pig costume. Meanwhile, Trent and Angie were trying to sing their mob song, but they kept starting in different places and then having to start over.

"BOO!" Someone in the audience shouted. It was followed by several shushes, but it was too late. Suddenly the forest was disappearing, replaced by a dungeon. No one was in the dungeon scene except Trent; Emma had totally forgotten it was in the show, even though she'd spent an afternoon painting the cell bars. Still, it didn't stop rising set from knocking Sally off the stage and another Hufflepuff from running off screaming into the wings.

"WAIT!" shouted Trent. Behind him, a tree fell over. He'd nearly lost the audience entirely; everyone who wasn't screaming as the trees squirted apple-sized globs of paint into the audience was laughing at the chaos onstage.

McGonagall ran on from the audience to pull him offstage before he could keep the show going. It was probably for the best, Emma thought; one more minute and someone might have been killed by a moving set piece.

"Thank you so much to the cast and crew of _Talk To The Wand._ " McGonagall spoke above the chaos. It seemed as though her notoriously tough presence was cracking under the situation at hand. "And I will remind everyone that the cast's hard work has been immortalized into a portrait. It will hang in the third floor east corridor for anyone who wants to see it."

The entire school burst into applause at this.

"If anyone asks," Dee Dee whispered, "I wasn't involved."

* * *

Emma had become used to Moby running off during the year; she didn't know where he went, but he always came back. So she held him tight until the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station, but let him go afterwards to roam as he pleased. She knew he'd be back by the time they got there.

So when her curtain opened, Emma expected it to be Moby coming back early. She was surprised to see Barry standing there alone. Not that she was unhappy; she just hadn't had a real conversation with him all year.

"Can I join you for a minute?" he asked. 

Emma nodded hesitantly. "You don't have to sit in the prefects' car?"

Barry shook his head. "What can they do to me at this point?" He walked in and sat down across from Emma. Emma swung her legs back and forth, waiting for Barry to talk. But Barry was shuffling his feet, eyes down; was he just not going to talk?

"Is everything okay?" Emma asked.

Barry looked up. "Yeah. Yeah, everything's fine," he said quickly. "I'm just -" he cleared his throat - "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being weird all year."

Emma blinked. "It's okay."

Neither of them said anything for a second, and Emma wondered if Barry was just going to stand up and go. Then another question occurred to her. "Did something happen or something? Like, that you want to talk about?"

Barry's eyes grew wide as he looked at her. It was weird; in the two years Emma had known him, she had seen him as this big energetic presence, and in the past year as a little more quiet and serious. She had never known him to look this...vulnerable.

But he took a deep breath and continued. "Just some stuff that happened at home this year. Uh...basically I came out to my parents, and it didn't go well." He said this all in one breath, as if he needed to say it quickly or not at all. He looked up at Emma, then back at his shoes. "I told them the night before I left - figured it might be better if they had some time to process it. But when they dropped me off at the train, they said it might be best if I stopped coming home for breaks. Apparently I'd be a bad influence on my brother - I hadn't told him yet, even, but that was that. They left before I could say anything else."

Emma reached out for his hand. She wasn't much of a hand holding person, but she knew Barry was a very touchy person. His hand shook in hers. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know."

Barry swallowed. "It's fine. I just haven't told that many people yet - other than the others, but only because I got on the train and couldn't hide that something was wrong. And I didn't want to tell anyone at school, but I guess I just ended up closing myself off."

Emma shrugged. "You don't have to tell people if you don't want to."

"I just wanted to tell you," Barry replied. "I wasn't sure how you would take it, is the thing. But I felt bad that I basically wasn't there for you all year."

Emma squeezed his hand. Truth be told, Barry was probably the first gay person close to her age that she knew. Thinking about it, it wasn't the most surprising thing; but at least when her parents sent her to live with her grandma, they thought they were giving her a better life. This just didn't even make sense.

"So where are you going this summer?" she asked.

"Dee Dee has an extra room in her house," Barry explained. "I stayed with Trent over the holidays. Should be an okay summer; Dee Dee's parents are taking her to New York this summer, and she said I could probably go with them." He let go of Emma's hand. "Seriously, just promise that you won't tell anyone, okay?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to think the rest of the school would be okay with it, but I really don't know." Barry twisted his hands together as he spoke. "It's just one year, and then I can be whoever I want. But I can't lose Hogwarts, Emma. I need to be here now."

Emma felt a rush of sympathy for Barry. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to hold something that big inside her. But she also knew it wasn't up to her what to do with other people's secrets. "I won't tell. Promise."

Barry's whole body relaxed. "Thanks, Emma," he said. "For being okay with it, too - are you okay?"

Emma looked at him, surprised. "Of course. You're my friend, right? That doesn't change now." Barry laughed a little. Emma grinned. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Better," Barry replied. "It felt kind of good to get it out there, honestly."

They sat in silence for a little while as the train moved along, but a comfortable silence. Emma relaxed a little; she hadn't realized quite how much she missed Barry until now. She wondered if this meant she'd see a little more of him next year - the real him.

"I think I'm gonna go back to my car," said Barry after a bit. "But I'll see you next year?"

Emma smiled. "See you next year."

Barry stood up and went to open the curtain door, nearly knocking into someone as he did. Emma heard a low-pitched whine coming from behind him as he apologized and ran out - sort of like a mildly annoyed whale.

"Emma?"

Emma focused on the person behind the whale sounds. Standing there, looking slightly shocked at the sound emitting from the creature she was holding, was Alyssa. Emma's eyes widened - she had barely seen her all year either, other than a few quick hellos in the halls. But here she was now, holding a very annoyed Moby.

"Hey," Emma said. "You found Moby?"

Alyssa grinned. "You were right about his whale sounds. It's uncanny. But yeah, he wandered into my compartment so I figured I better find the rightful owner."

Emma laughed. "Thanks for your help."

Alyssa handed Moby over to Emma, where he immediately fell asleep. Emma and Alyssa looked at each other for what felt like forever. Emma didn't want to tell Alyssa to leave, but was that all she had to do? Was it wrong to keep her there if she wanted to just get back to her friends?

Then again, if she wanted to leave why wasn't she just leaving?

Alyssa cleared her throat. "So," she said. "Did you have a good year?"

Emma thought for a second. "You know, I guess I did." She laughed. "Pretty crazy, but good."

"The play would certainly make a year crazy," Alyssa agreed.

Emma groaned. "Don't remind me."

"Hey, at least you're not Trent," Alyssa pointed out.

That was true. When they saw the portrait, Emma realized that thanks to either their masks or their makeup nearly everyone in the cast was unrecognizable. The one exception was Trent, who insisted on being visible the entire time. Now the entire school knew who Trent was; he could barely walk a single hallway without someone cheering his name or saying, "it's the guy from _Talk To The Wand_!"

"Did you have a good year?" Emma asked.

Alyssa thought for a second. "I guess so. Pretty busy, at least."

"I can imagine."

Alyssa nodded. "Plus my mom just joined the school board, so you know. I see her a lot. She wants to make sure I'm doing my best."

"That must be pretty hard," said Emma. Her own parents had never talked to her much about grades when she was in Muggle school, probably because they spent so much time in the principal's office for things she couldn't explain. And her grandma had always said her grades didn't matter as much as trying her best did. Still, it sounded like Alyssa had a lot to think about on a daily basis.

"Yeah," Alyssa agreed. "I'm really ready for summer."

"Me too." Alyssa didn't make a move to sit down or leave for another minute; she hopped from one leg to the other, as though she wasn't sure what to do with herself.

"I have to head back," Alyssa said finally. "My mom's friend has a daughter our age and she asked me to sit with her on the way back, so I can't be gone for too long."

Emma wasn't sure why she felt her stomach sinking at this, but she smiled anyway. "That's okay. I'll see you next year."

"But - um, this might be weird -" Alyssa reached into her bag and pulled out a small wrapped box. "I got this in Diagon Alley last year but I didn't have time to send it before school started, and then I kept getting - not having time to give it to you," she explained. "But I realized you got me a birthday present last year, and I never gave you one, and I know it's already closer to your next birthday now but I guess you could either call this a really late or really early present. Depending on which one you prefer. I don't know."

From everything Emma knew, Alyssa had always been a very articulate person. At least, in the other times they'd talked she'd never rambled on this long. Emma took the box from her, a little confused but pleasantly surprised. Surprised really, that anyone besides her grandma would take the time to remember her birthday like this - unless you counted Trent's songbook, which Emma still couldn't decide if it was supposed to be a gift or a humble brag - even though it was about eight months late.

Emma unwrapped the box. She looked at the label - _Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Special Edition._

"I don't really know if those are good flavors - like, maybe they mean they've never had sour apple, or maybe they mean they've never had toxic waste?" Alyssa explained hesitantly. "But I know you like them - they're not the best birthday present, or the most creative, I know -"

"Alyssa," Emma said softly. "This is so sweet." She paused for a second. "You're the first person here to get me a present. Thank you."

She reached out hesitantly, but reached back when Alyssa didn't move. Alyssa, seeing Emma's movement, moved to go hug her. The result was a sort of awkward tangle of limbs, but for some reason it made Emma feel kind of warm inside, like she had just had a really good cup of hot chocolate. Her heart beat faster. She had hugged Alyssa at least once or twice before and it hadn't felt this - nice. What was going on?

Alyssa pulled back after a second. "See you next year?"

Emma nodded. "Have a good summer."

And as they pulled closer to the station, Emma hugging Moby as she watched the fields and mountains around her begin to become a little more quiet and orderly, she couldn't help but get the sense that by next year something big might happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, if you liked something or have suggestions or questions please comment, they're much appreciated!   
> (Also I'm aware this is kind of slow getting going but I already have plans for the next few chapters and I'm really excited for what's coming!)


End file.
